The Yuktan Republic (Also known as the First Yuktani Republic after the Republic's restoration in 4 ABY) was a nation located on the planet Earth. The nation was located on the desertic continent of Yuktanica far to the south-east of the continent of Aeropica.
History[]
The republic was a successor to the Yuktan Emirate, which had originally be founded in 902 BBY. The Emirate was overthrown in 317 BBY during the Yuktani Revolution against Emir Pasha VI, who put heavy taxes on the Yuktani to pay for his lavish lifestyle, something which greatly upset the Yuktani peasantry.
The era of the 450s BBY saw the development of Yuktan's greatest export business, that of the production of high-quality Silk. This Silk was of such high quality that the Yuktan Emirate grew wealthy, and this wealth only increased as Silk production was industrialised over the coming centuries.
By the end of the 3rd century BBY the Yuktan Republic was the world's greatest producer of Silk, this renown brought the Yuktani vast wealth and many contracts by foreign governments to supply them with the famous Yuktani Silk. This resulted in competition between rival nations over contracts.
The Yuktani were generally happy to sell to any side or nation, which occasionally caused them the odd diplomatic incident, or two. The most serious incident was by far the Yuktani War of 203 BBY - 202 BBY, which was started by the nation of Nortalia, and the Nortalian allied powers of the East Aerman Confederation, invading the Yuktan Republic in order to prevent them trading with their rivals, the Zarkan Kingdom-allied West Aerman Confederation.
Within a year, the East Aerman forces had overwhelmed the Yuktani armed forces and occupied the nation's major settlements, as a result the nation was forced to sue for peace. Nortalia stated that they would maintain their occupation force in the Yuktan until the concurrent War of the Two Confederations against the West Aerman powers was concluded.
A Yuktani insurgency began almost immediately after the end of the Yuktani War, the Yuktani Insurrection. This insurrection saw Yuktani rebel and insurrectionary forces ignore the Nortalian disbandment order and continue to resist the occupiers. This insurgency started to spread the occupation forces thin, and in 201 BBY the major Silk-producing town of El Adabad was liberated by rebel forces, a major blow to the East Aerman forces occupying the Yuktan Republic.
Eventually, by 200 BBY the forces of the East Aerman Confederation had grown tired and worn down by the stalemate against the Western forces, in response they individually began making peace with the West Aerman nations, abandoned Nortalia, and began exiting the war. As successive numbers of East Aerman nations made peace the occupation forces in the Yuktan saw a gradual decline, as the nations now at peace began recalling their units.
Soon, only Nortalia was left, since Nortalia was the only nation to have troops left in occupation most of the Yuktan Republic was liberated, at this point the Yuktani Insurrection was effectively over, but did not officially end until Nortalia surrendered and made peace with the rebels.
Following this war, the Yuktan Republic quickly returned to normal, the Silk factories opened up, and exports started up again. In 52 BBY the Yuktan Republic officially joined the Union of Earth States, merely choosing to do so to facilitate easier trade with the nation's primary export partners, most of whom were in the Union.
Despite joining the Union, the Yuktani allegiance to the Union was tenuous at best, and refused to deal solely with the Union, instead maintaining developed trade links with non-Union nations. The Yuktani argued that this free trade policy was their right, and was in their best interests.
When the Confederate States of Earth were founded in 21 BBY the Yuktani merchants acknowledged their prior trade links with the nations now consisting the Confederacy and began to trade Silk to the Confederacy, despite being a Union member - something which drew ire of Yuktan's fellow Union members. Yuktani merchant sailors and freight liner companies operated blockade runners to bring the valuable Silk safely past patrolling Union warships to Confederate ports.
Some of the more nationalistic Union members urged the Union Senate to oust the Yuktan Republic from the Union for this, considering them to be traitors for supplying the enemies of the Union. The Yuktan Republic hotly debated this move, stating they were a neutral nation, and were thus free to trade with whomever they saw fit, despite their Union membership. The Union backed down when the Yuktani threatened to refuse paying their tariffs on their exports, a sizeable portion of the Union's income.
In 19 BBY the Union Senate introduced the Western Trade Embargo Act, which was designed to prevent Union merchants and traders from trading with the Confederacy, who continued to be viewed as illegal and illegitimate by the Union Senate, despite the signing of the Treaty of Williamston the previous year.
In response to this trade embargo, which had the potential to hurt the Yuktan's lucrative trade deals with the Confederacy to provide Silk, which formed a bulk of Yuktani exports, the Yuktan Republic officially seceded from the Union and declared herself a neutral party, trading with both states. By this point, the Union had been reduced to 15 members (including the Yuktan Republic) following the Earth Civil War of 21 BBY - 20 BBY, whilst the Confederacy consisted of 95 members, so the Yuktani decided to cut their ties with the Union and increase their relations with the Confederacy.
The Galactic Empire conquered the continent of Yuktanica as part of its campaign during the Third Battle of Earth. The Empire forced the Yuktani to accept Imperial overlordship, and the Yuktan Republic was transformed into the Yuktan Protectorate - a state which was de jure a territory under the protection of the Empire, though was de facto an Imperial colony.
Unlike Imperial puppet states such as the Imperial Kingdom of Zarkania the Yuktan Protectorate was placed under the virtual control of an Imperial governor-general, who was assisted by a puppet council, at least in theory - though, in reality, the council was merely for show, since the Imperial governor was the real head of the state. The puppet council was unelected and consisted of local Yuktani nationalists hand-picked by the Imperial authorities for their perceived acceptance of Imperial rule and willingness to collaborate with the Empire.
The Protectorate was also not allowed to possess its own national flag in an official capacity, the Imperial flag served as the state flag, as was the case with all territories under strict Imperial oversight, though the Imperials were tolerant of an unofficial flag which was a modified version of the Yuktani flag containing the Imperial emblem in the canton and the legend "Long Live the Empire!" written in Yuktanic besides it.